Vinegar Hill Residents Want to Save Belgian Blocks
Two petitions just emerged out of Vinegar Hill about proposed streetscape changes to the neighborhood, which leave, as Curbed put it, “residents of the tiny ten-block enclave less than thrilled.” The first petition asks the city to preserve the original belgian block streets in Vinegar Hill and opposes the “use of machine-made or machine-altered cobblestones…
Two petitions just emerged out of Vinegar Hill about proposed streetscape changes to the neighborhood, which leave, as Curbed put it, “residents of the tiny ten-block enclave less than thrilled.” The first petition asks the city to preserve the original belgian block streets in Vinegar Hill and opposes the “use of machine-made or machine-altered cobblestones of any kind.” The original blocks are scheduled to be removed for infrastructure changes along Water Street, as well as a bike lane down Water. The second petition specifically asks that the bike lane planned within the Brooklyn Greenway skip Vinegar Hill altogether, considering that the DOT plans to make the path by reconfiguring the Belgian blocks by rotating them lengthwise. The Brooklyn Greenway would stretch three blocks through Vinegar Hill on Water and Plymouth Streets. The DOT already undertook a similar project down in Dumbo, which mostly restored the old Belgian blocks and added new blocks to create a bike lane along Water. In our humble opinion the restoration job did a good job of eliminating potholes and uneven paving as well as accommodating bikers. Do you think the proposed streetscape changes threaten the historic feel of the neighborhood?
Vinegar Hill Residents Really Don’t Want Bike Lanes [Curbed]
The City of New York: Preserve Original Belgian Block Streets in Vinegar Hill [Change.org]
The City of New York: Bypass Vinegar Hill When Implementing the Brooklyn Greenway [Change.org]
Photo by jackie weisberg
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… Bikers cannot ride a straight line from the Navy Yard to Washington or Jay street in Dumbo? York is the most logical street to use for this roughly 5 block stretch.
Bikers can turn off and view and enjoy vinegar hill anytime – it is destructive to route hundreds of bikers through that very small neighborhood , and completely unnecessary. The charm of VH – which may be what draws visitors to see its very historic and almost unaltered character – will be severely compromised by the introduction of this density of traffic. It is illogical to run the bike route though there, and the reason for wanting people to see and enjoy this calm preserved treasure will be destroyed in the process of making it accessible.
Re-use the historic and original block. The patina of old stones, laid CORRECTLY in place by real stonemasons or skilled craftsman ( such as the kind one finds in Europe, not the meatheads the dot employs here), is irreplaceable and a large part of what gives European cities their special feeling and gravitas.
The stones we have should be replaced properly to create an even and relatively flat road surface – again, acceptable for Paris and Rome, it would be acceptable here.
And why can’t the bike lanes go down York street? Because bikers should avoid the Farragut housing? Instead the small and charming streets of vinegar hill should become densely packed with extra traffic and wear, while a perfectly suitable major thoroughfare lies just one block over? Bikers must be turned to wind down among small Belgian block streets – that then have to be altered destroying their historic value – because the bikers can’t ride straight line from the Navy Yard
They did a great job on Water St. using old blocks but Washington St. is not historic restoration. Looks more like a suburban mall. This treatment appears to be the plan for VH.
VH street are very narrow, it’s a little dangerous to have parking, traffic and bike lanes on these small streets.